If you play these games the way I did, this will be your first Dragon Engine game, and the first one for a long time. First impressions matter, and the simple ability of walking into a store or restaurant directly from the street had me unreasonably impressed. Compared to the expansion pack feeling of Kiwami 1, this feels like the first genuinely modern (as in, the setting) Yakuza experience.

Hot take: I'm in favour of these games bringing the insanity of the side content into the main story. Hell yeah give me castles rising out of the ground, jokes about the Millennium Tower exploding, dud bombs, all of that. I never know what's going on in these stories anyway, why not have some fun with it?

As a sequel to Kiwami 1, this treads the line much more confidently between remaking the original Yakuza 2 and continuing the story from 0. Kiryu getting to see what Majima's club from 0 is up to now and the entire Majima Saga side story are perfect ways to complete that circle from the prequel, and unlike with Kiwami 1 these new additions don't get in the way of the content from the original game. I also personally have to give this game props for making me actually cry over one of the songs in the karaoke ("Tonight", I wasn't expecting it to carry over from Kiwami 1 and it was a lot more impactful here, I thought).

Kiwami has to do double duty as both a remake of the original Yakuza and a sequel to 0, and as a result it feels like both and neither at the same time. I think this is most obvious with the way Majima is presented in this game. The bulk of the script is lifted straight from the PS2 original (as are the cutscene animations, which I didn't know was the case until later but my brain definitely noticed), so in his appearances in the main story he's practically a secondary antagonist, a loose cannon with a love for violence and kidnapping, just there to get a rise out of Kiryu. This doesn't really square with the Majima Everywhere system, which is full Yakuza wackiness and Majima in his 2 - present characterisation. It just took me out of things a bit when I was fighting him made up like a zombie or hiding inside a giant traffic cone when I've just fought him as a story boss after he kidnapped a little girl.

The same divide in Yakuza 1 style compared to 0 is in other side content as well. The substories that come from the original game are all basically "Kiryu gets wronged by someone and beats them up until they apologise", but then there's also a full sequel arc to stuff like Pocket Circuit.

Playing 0 before this does help in some ways though - mostly with Nishiki. His heel turn is far more impactful if you've seen what he was like in the prequel rather than just an intro scene where he doesn't really do anything. Ultimately, I think it's clear they did want this to be a sequel to 0, but trying to juggle that with the equal desire to make a faithful remake of the original was never going to turn out perfectly. Obviously a vital step in the Yakuza journey and a lot of my complaints are a) nitpicking and b) more retrospective issues than stuff that affects the play experience - assume anything I didn't mention is perfectly fine and just be aware of some clashing design concepts.

I assumed I'd finished this at some point in the past, but when I installed it on the Series X to finally get the Unleashed experience that God intended I realised I actually hadn't. Coldest possible take but it really is a case of one half being fantastic and the other being fine to mediocre.

I like some parts of the Werehog's gameplay; mostly the platforming, as I quite like the almost puzzle nature of getting across gaps with beams to balance on, poles to grab, bars to swing on, and so on. The combat is fine in small doses, but later in the game when enemies become damage sponges and elemental effects can stop you in your tracks, it gets supremely annoying. Every night level also massively outstays its welcome; it feels like for every 20 minute night stage you get probably 5 minutes of day stage at most. Obviously 3D Sonic levels have to be absolutely huge to have any real duration so I get it, but on balance I do think you have to play more of the worse part which never feels amazing.

The day stages are absolutely worth waiting for though. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that everything else in the game - slightly dull, overly long night stages, undercooked hub worlds, the occasional weird minigame or boss fight - is just something you put up with because at the end of it you'll get some of the finest 3D Sonic action ever made. The speed is completely unmatched, even in the other boost-formula games, and combined with the grounded real-world inspired locations it can be absolutely breathtaking. The beginning of Cool Edge, where you're boosting at a million miles an hour over a frozen lake with towering glaciers either side with perhaps my favourite piece of music from this whole series playing, almost brings a tear to my eye today just as it did in 2008. The level design makes the fundamentals of Sonic as clear as they've ever been, where learning the layout and reacting to obstacles and opportunities to hit another route are the key to success. My only real gripe is that homing attack is on the same button as boost, so have fun with Jungle Joyride when they make you start doing actual platforming in 3D!

Couple of general gripes as well - it sucks having to collect medals to unlock later stages. I was mindful to collect everything I could during my run and was still like 15 medals short of unlocking the final level when I got there. They should have only locked off optional stages like that, because I think this is a major reason for people to drop out before the ending. But to be fair, it's not like the ending is much good either. Ridiculous to think the final piece of input this game requires is to mash the X button 60 times in 10 seconds. Anyway, talk about the good outweighing the bad because for all my complaints I still think the package overall is a really good time.